Egypt use World Cup failure as motivation for 2012

By Inas Mazhar
BBC Sport, Cairo

Egypt will use their World Cup failure to bring more Nations Cup success

Reigning African champions Egypt will use their failure to qualify for the recent World Cup as a spur to success in the Cup of Nations in 2012.

The Pharaohs narrowly missed out on a place at South Africa 2010 after losing a play-off against Algeria.

Had they won their first preliminary match, instead of drawing at home, they would have qualified.

"We will never forget when we drew with Zambia - we lost the race then," Egypt assistant coach Shawki Gharieb said.

"We have learned that the first match in our campaign is the most important - if you win the first match, you gain confidence and it makes you comfortable in the rest of qualification."

Egypt face Sierra Leone in Cairo in their opening match - South Africa and Niger are their other opponents in Group G of qualifying for the Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in 2012.

Gharieb admitted that the coaching staff know little about the Leone Stars but said they were taking the game "seriously".

"Our target is to win all our games without having to look for the results of the other teams and how they perform," he said.

Head coach Hassan Shehata has left Zamalek striker Amr Zaki out of the squad for the Sierra Leone game because the former Wigan and Hull City star is not fit or in form.

"Zaki is not fit to join the national team at the moment however we hope he could return to his peak soon," Gharieb explained.

Also missing from the line-up is the Harras al Hadood striker Ahmed Abdel-Malek, who has been left out because of his disciplinary problems.